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A new accounting rule for reporting leases goes into effect in 2019 for public companies. Although private companies have been granted a one-year reprieve, no business should wait until the last minute to start the implementation process. Some recently revised guidance is intended to ease implementation. Here’s an overview of what’s changing.

Old rules, new rules

Under the existing rules, companies must record lease obligations on their balance sheets only if the arrangements are considered financing transactions. Few arrangements get recorded, because accounting rules give companies leeway to arrange the agreements in a way that they can be treated as simple rentals for financial reporting purposes. If an obligation isn’t recorded on a balance sheet, it makes a business look like it is less leveraged than it really is.

In 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a new standard that calls for major changes to current accounting practices for leases. In a nutshell, Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), will require companies to recognize on their balance sheets the assets and liabilities associated with rentals.

Most existing arrangements that currently are reported as leases will continue to be reported as leases under the new standard. In addition, the new definition is expected to encompass many more types of arrangements that aren’t reported as leases under current practice.

Revised guidance

Recently, the FASB revised two provisions to make the lease guidance easier to apply:

1. Modified retrospective approach. Upon adoption of the new lease accounting standard, companies may elect to present results using the current lease guidance for prior periods. This will allow management to focus on accounting for current and future transactions under the new rules — rather than looking backward at old leases.

2. Maintenance charges. On March 28, the FASB agreed to give lessors and property managers the option not to separately account for the fees for “common area maintenance” charges, such as security, elevator repairs and snow removal.

In addition, the FASB has provided a practical expedient to utilities, oil-and-gas companies and energy providers that hold rights-of-way to accommodate gas pipelines or electric wires. Under the revised guidance, companies that hold such land easements won’t have to sort through years of old contracts to determine whether they meet the definition of a lease. This practical expedient applies only to existing land easements, however.

Need help?

The lease standard is expected to add more than $1.25 trillion of operating lease obligations to public company balance sheets starting in 2018. How will it affect your business? Contact us to help answer this question and evaluate which of your contracts must be reported as lease obligations under the new rules.

The balance sheet usually reflects the historic cost of assets and liabilities. But certain items must be reported at “fair value” under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Here’s a closer look at what fair value is and which balance sheet accounts it affects.

Fair value vs. fair market value

Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 820 defines fair value as “the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.” This definition is similar in many respects to “fair market value,” which is defined in IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60.

The main difference is that fair market value focuses on the universe of hypothetical buyers and sellers. Conversely, FASB uses the term “market participants,” which refers to buyers and sellers in the asset’s or liability’s principal market. The principal market is entity specific and may vary among companies.

Hierarchy of value

Under ASC Topic 820, fair value is most often associated with business combinations and subsequent accounting for goodwill and other intangibles after the deal closes. Other examples of items that are reported at fair value include:

Impairment or disposals of long-lived assets,

Asset retirement or environmental obligations,

Stock compensation, and

Certain financial assets and liabilities.

When measuring fair value, the FASB provides a hierarchy of methods that may not necessarily apply to valuations performed for other purposes. GAAP gives top priority to market-based methods, such as quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

When market data isn’t readily available for a specific company, GAAP looks to quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or liabilities — in other words, comparable public stock prices or sales of controlling interests in comparable companies. The least desirable level of inputs under GAAP is unobservable data, such as cash flow or cost estimates prepared by management (which may be used to estimate value under the income or cost approach).

Changes in value

Decreases in the fair value of an asset (or increases in the fair value of a liability) may result from, say, poor company performance, changes in economic conditions and inaccurate estimates made in the past. Companies aren’t allowed to overstate the value of assets (or understate the value of a liability) under GAAP, so changes in fair value may lead to write-offs or restatements.

Outside expertise

Auditors are specifically prohibited from providing valuation services for their public audit clients. Private companies may follow suit to prevent independence issues during audits. So, companies often turn to valuation experts who are independent from their auditors to make fair value estimates — and then their auditors can evaluate whether those estimates appear reasonable. Contact us if you have any questions about fair value, including how it’s estimated or when it applies.

A landmark financial reporting update is replacing about 180 pieces of industry-specific revenue accounting guidance with a single, principles-based approach. In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) unveiled Accounting Standards Update (ASU) No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. In 2015, the FASB postponed the effective date for the new revenue guidance by one year. Here’s why companies that report comparative results can’t delay any longer — and how to start the implementation process.

No time to waste

The updated revenue recognition guidance takes effect for public companies for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those annual reporting periods. The update permits early adoption, but no earlier than the original effective date of December 15, 2016. Private companies have an extra year to implement the changes.

That may seem like a long time away, but many companies voluntarily provide comparative results. For example, the presentation of two prior years of results isn’t required under GAAP, but it helps investors, lenders and other stakeholders assess long-term performance.

Calendar-year public companies that provide two prior years of results will need to collect revenue data under one of the retrospective transition methods for 2016 and 2017 in order to issue comparative statements by 2018. Private companies would have to follow suit a year later.

A new mindset

The primary change under the updated guidance is the requirement to identify separate performance obligations — promises to transfer goods or services — in a contract. A company should treat each promised good or service (or bundle of goods or services) as a performance obligation to the extent it’s “distinct,” meaning:

The customer can benefit from it (either on its own or together with other readily available resources), and

It’s separately identifiable in the contract.

Then, a company must determine whether these obligations are satisfied over time or at a point in time, and recognize revenue accordingly. The shift to a principles-based approach will require greater judgment on the part of management.

Call for help

Need assistance complying with the new guidance? We can help assess how — and when — you should report revenue, explain the disclosure requirements, and evaluate the impact on customer relationships and other aspects of your business, including tax planning strategies and debt covenants.

Both public and private companies can elect to use “pushdown” accounting when there’s a merger, acquisition or other change-in-control event. What does this mean — and when might this alternative reporting method be advantageous?

Understanding your options

Pushdown accounting refers to the practice of adjusting an acquired company’s standalone financial statements to reflect the acquirer’s accounting basis rather than the target’s historical costs. Typically, this means stepping up the target’s net assets to fair value and, to the extent the purchase price exceeds fair value, recognizing the excess as goodwill.

Whether pushdown accounting is appropriate depends on a company’s particular circumstances. For some companies, there may be advantages to reporting assets and liabilities at fair value and adopting consistent accounting policies for both the parent and subsidiary. Other companies may prefer not to apply pushdown accounting to avoid the negative impact on earnings, often associated with a step-up to fair value.

Previously, U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) provided little guidance on when pushdown accounting might be appropriate. For public companies, SEC guidance generally prohibited pushdown accounting unless the acquirer obtained at least an 80% interest in the target, and it generally required pushdown accounting when the acquirer’s interest reached 95%. The SEC has rescinded portions of its pushdown accounting guidance, bringing it in line with the FASB’s new standard.

Weighing your options

For each individual change-in-control event, acquired companies must evaluate the option to apply pushdown accounting. And once pushdown accounting is applied, the election is irrevocable. Acquired companies that apply pushdown accounting in their standalone financial statements are required to include disclosures in the current reporting period to help users evaluate its effects. Contact our A&A specialists for help deciding whether to elect this reporting option.

On February 25, 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) released accounting standards update No. 2016-02 which amended the Accounting Standards Codification Topic 842, Leases. The previous accounting model for leases in generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) did not require lessees to recognize the assets and liabilities arising from operating leases but it did require lessees to recognize assets and liabilities arising from capital leases. Some users of the financial statements complained that the financial statements of two similar entities could read differently based on whether or not they accounted for their leases as operating leases or capital leases.

FASB decided to address those criticisms by modifying the lessee accounting model in GAAP to require a lessee to recognize assets and liabilities for the rights and obligations created by leases. The new guidance requires a lessee to recognize the lease assets and lease liabilities for all leases with a lease term of more than 12 months. FASB’s goal is to provide a more faithful representation of a lessee’s assets and liabilities and enhance disclosures about a lessee’s financial leverage and its leasing activities.

The proposed standard does not provide for the “grandfathering” of existing leases and would require the new guidance to be applied to all existing lease agreements. Entities with significant lease exposure should reach out to their leasing entity to discuss the impact of having to report all leases with a term greater than 12 months on their balance sheets. Entities with loans with financial institutions should also consider discussing the impact of the new standard on any loan covenant ratios that could affect compliance with debt obligations.

The new lease accounting standards are effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018 for the following entities:

A public business entity

A not-for-profit entity that has issued, or is a conduit bond obligor for, securities that are traded, listed, or quoted on an exchange or an over-the-counter market

An employee benefit plan that files financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

For all other entities, the standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019.